Reading The Charts
Synopsis
Price charts may be simple line graphs, bar graphs or even candlestick graphs. These are graphs that show prices during defined time frames. These time frames may be anyplace from minutes to years or any time interval in between.
Line charts are the easiest to read, they'll show you the broad overview of price movement. They only show the closing price for the specified interval, they make it really simple to pick out patterns and trends but don't provide the fine detail of a bar or candlestick chart.
With a bar chart, the length of a line displays the price spread during that time interval. The bigger the bar is the greater the price difference between the high and low price during the interval.
It's easy to tell at a glance if the price rose or fell because the left tab shows the opening price and the right tab the closing price. Then the bar will give you the price variation. When printed bar charts may be difficult to read but most software charts have a zoom function so you are able to easily read even closely spaced bars.